The outstadingly beautiful Fort of Michelangelo is amongst the most beautiful of similar preserved monuments wich our Renaissance boasts. The military arts and sciences of those times are here admirably fused.

it is a low robust construction, covered in travertine, wich was begun in 1508 with the first stone layed in the presence of Julius II, the "Warrior Pope" who recognised the importance of Civitavecchia Port and wanted to secure it against attacks from Turkish pirates, at that time the lords of the sea.

The craeator was the grea architect Bramante who personally directed the work. it was then continued by Antonio from Sangallo after the death of the great master.
The Fort was finished in 1535, in the Papal Rule of Paul III, by Michelangelo who heightened the elegant "Mastio".

It was beseiged in vain by the Spanish fleet which was driven away, then by the French fleet led by renzo da Ceri; in 1544 it was attacked in vain by Redbeard; in 1799 it was seized with honourable conditions by the French Repubblican forces and in 1814 it was occupied by Murat after the defendersretreated.
On 9 february 1849, during the Roman Republic the tricolore was raised for the first time.
in the last war II sufferd serious damage in the air bombarding and afterwards was reconstructed and restored.

The Fort is one of the biggest built in that era. The construction has a rectangular design (100m x 82)with four large cilindrical corner towers (21m diameter and 16 m. high) and an octagonal "Mastio" (12 m wide and 23 m high) carrying high up ostentetious coat of arms of Paulo III and a frieze of lilies ( the coat of arms of the house of Farnese). The ramparts recovered in travertine, have a thickness varying from six to about eight metres. A moat used to flow around, but today it has disappeared. in high the rampart reappears in lead, encircled at the top by an attractive projection held up by ledges of classical workmanship. The ramparts are crowned by parapets with more or less large openings depending on whether they were needed for harquebus ( an early type of portable gun) or cannons.
The present day entrance is not the same as the ancient one. That opened at the "Mastio" and was walled up after 1870.
The bronze pulley which was used to raise the drawbridge can still be seen; and above the doorposts of the same ancient entrance the order "Leave your weapons" can be read carved. The spacious internal courtyard is extremely beautiful with borders decorated with "lesene" and projecting lintels.